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Panel 2. Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Abstract

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Introduction: Research has demonstrated robust associations between prenatal stress and cognitive, socioemotional, and physical health outcomes. Although studies have begun to identify associations between prenatal stress and infant neurodevelopment, research has yet to explore the specific neural correlates of prenatal environmental unpredictability. Given that ecological changes are prevalent during pregnancy (Saxbe et al., 2018), understanding the role of environmental unpredictability may provide unique insights. Here we use resting-state (rs)-fMRI to examine the effects of prenatal environmental unpredictability on infant amygdalar functional connectivity (FC) and subsequent socioemotional functioning at 1-year-old.

Method: Participants were N=48 mother-infant dyads. Consistent with established measures of unpredictability (Belsky, 2012) and chaos (Doan & Evans, 2020), prenatal environmental unpredictability was operationalized as the number of maternal and paternal job transitions, residential moves, and changes in household member composition. For each domain, the number of occurrences during the prenatal period was totaled to derive a single Environmental Unpredictability score for each participant. Summed scores for each domain were also calculated.

Infants completed a rs-fMRI scan (Mage = 31.25, SD = 14.43 days). Infant MRI data was preprocessed using FSL (Jenkinson et al., 2012) and AFNI (Cox, 1996). Seed-based whole-brain correlation analyses were performed to estimate FC. Amygdala seed regions were defined based on the bilateral parcellations from a neonate specific atlas (Shi et al., 2011). Seed-based FC maps were obtained for each seed by extracting the mean fMRI time series and correlating with the time series of every other voxel in the brain. Network masks were derived utilizing a t-test (voxel-wise p < 0.001, cluster correction alpha <0.05, t > 0). A voxel-wise correlation analysis was performed to test associations between the prenatal environmental unpredictability variables and amygdala to whole-brain FC.

Exploratory Pearson’s correlations were conducted to test prospective associations between neonatal FC, unpredictability, and socioemotional functioning at 1-year old in a subsample of infants (N=17). Socioemotional functioning was measured using the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA, Briggs-Gowan & Carter, 2006), an assessment of socioemotional competencies and problems.

Results: We found significant associations between neonatal rs-FC of the left amygdala with two distinct clusters and the number of maternal occupation transitions. First, maternal occupation transitions were positively associated with neonatal FC of the left amygdala with the right supramarginal gyrus (Fig 1a). Second, maternal occupation transitions were negatively associated with FC of the left amygdala with the left precuneus and superior occipital gyrus regions (Fig 1b). Exploratory analysis found that left amygdala with right supramarginal gyrus connectivity was negatively associated with BITSEA competence scores (r=-.463, p=.061, Fig 2). No significant associations were found between amygdalar FC and composite prenatal unpredictability scores, paternal job transitions, household member changes, or residential moves.

Conclusion: We found preliminary evidence that maternal occupation transitions are associated with neonate amygdalar FC with somatosensory, association, and occipital regions. Our findings also suggest that altered amygdalar FC may be related to later socioemotional functioning. This research contributes to the growing literature on early stress by examining the understudied role of prenatal environmental unpredictability.

Author information

Author	Role
Jenna H. Chin, University of Denver	Presenting author
Alina Mali, University of Denver	Non-presenting author
Haitao Chen, University of California, Los Angeles	Non-presenting author
Wei Gao, Cedars-Sinai	Non-presenting author
Pilyoung Kim, University of Denver; Ewha Womans University	Non-presenting author

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